BACKGROUND Inspiratory muscle strength in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can be affected by mechanical factors which influence the length of the diaphragm, and by non-mechanical factors. The aim of the present study was to evaluate firstly the effects of body position on respiratory pressures and, secondly, to determine the relative contribution of age, body mass ind...

background: palmaris longus (pl) is a muscle with marked variations. it is harvested as a tendon graft in many surgical proceduresin which a certain length of tendon is required. the aims of the present study were to determine the variations of this tendon in iranian population and to find whether the length of pl tendon could be estimated by measuring the forearm length and height.   methods: ...

BACKGROUND The birth weight reference curve to estimate the newborns at risk in need of assessment and monitoring has been established. The previous reference curves from Indonesia, approximately 8 years ago, were based on the data collected from teaching hospitals only with limited gestational ages. The aims of the study were to update the reference curves for birth weight, supine length and h...

The aim of this study was to investigate the infl uence of diff erent positions on stretch refl ex activity of knee fl exors and extensors measured by surface electromyography in poststroke patients with spasticity and its expression in the Ashworth scale. Nineteen poststroke patients with lower-limb spasticity participated in this crossover trial, during which stretch refl ex activity was asse...

AIM Urethral pressure reflectometry (UPR) is a new method for measuring pressure and cross-sectional area in the urethra. Our aim was to investigate if the UPR parameters at rest and during squeeze were unchanged after TVT. METHODS The technique enables measurement along the entire length of the urethra simultaneously and avoids the common artefacts encountered with conventional catheters. Tw...

BACKGROUND Lower extremity analysis for preoperative total knee and hip arthroplasty routines can increase surgery success rate and hence reduce associated costs. Current tools are limited by being invasive, limited to supine analysis, or too expensive. This study aimed to propose and validate a device, OrthoPilot®, based on the combined use of a stereophotogrammetric and ultrasound system whic...

BACKGROUND Syncope in patients with supraventricular tachycardia has been suggested to be an ominous finding, predictive of rapid rates during tachycardia. METHODS AND RESULTS To explore the mechanism of syncope during supraventricular tachycardia, tachycardia was induced in the supine position and after passive head-up tilting to 60 degrees in 13 patients with atrioventricular (AV) node reen...